City of Portland – Major League Soccer

Ball Janik LLP’s Real Estate practice represented the City of Portland (City) in the renovation of PGE Park, a then-existing AAA Baseball stadium, into a Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium that is now home to the MLS Portland Timbers. We worked with the City’s Chief Administrative Officer, the Mayor’s Economic Development Director and the City Attorney’s office to negotiate and document a public-private partnership with the Hank Paulson family for the remodeling of the 20,000 seat stadium. Acting as the City’s outside counsel, the Ball Janik team led and participated in all negotiations, drafted all documents and helped forge the final agreement.

In addition, Ball Janik negotiated and documented a license agreement to allow Providence Health & Services-Oregon to use and occupy a sports rehabilitation clinic to be built into the existing stadium. The value of the stadium renovation was $31 million, with an additional $3 million invested for Providence’s tenant improvements.

The project involved a unique product type which required us to address many complex issues. There are few comparable stadium facilities in the region and only one other in-stadium clinic in Oregon. In addition, the public/private partnership nature of the transaction required an ability to balance real estate issues with political pressures.